How to Make Sure the Government Can’t Freeze Your Bank Account

Greece has fallen from the headlines… but everyday life there is still a nightmare.

Regular readers know we’ve been closely following the financial disaster in Greece. For years, Greece spent more than it took in in taxes. This led to a financial crisis that looked like it might destroy Europe’s financial system.

The Greek government closed all banks in June to prevent people from withdrawing all their money and crashing the banking system. And it let Greek citizens withdraw only €60 ($67) of their own money each day from ATMs.

“It’s a nightmare. I owe many people money now – gas stations and firms that service machinery. I have to go to the bank every single day, and the money I can take out is not enough.”

• Short on cash, Greek people have resorted to bartering…

Here’s Reuters:

A rising number of Greeks in rural areas are swapping goods and services in cashless transactions since the government shut down banks on June 28 for three weeks, restricted cash withdrawals and banned transfers abroad to halt a run on deposits and prevent a collapse of the banks.

“Bartering” means exchanging goods and services without using money. It’s how humans did business thousands of years ago. Bartering is extremely inefficient because you have to find someone who has what you want… and wants what you have.

Reuters reports how the Greek farmer is trying to survive the crisis:

Squeezed on all sides, the 41-year-old farmer began informal bartering to get around the cash crunch. He now pays some of his workers in kind with his clover crop and exchanges equipment with other farmers instead of buying or renting machinery.

Another farmer is trading cotton and wheat for bales of hay and machine parts, Reuters says.

This is a good reminder of something we stress often: the government controls any money you have in the bank. It can decide you’re not allowed to touch your own money at any time. Or it can put severe restrictions on how much money you can take out, like the Greek government is doing right now. And there’s nothing you can do about it.

• This is exactly why we wrote Going Global 2015…

Going Global 2015 is our guide to surviving financial crises.

It shows you specific and easy steps for protecting yourself and your family from the next financial disaster.

And we’d like to send you a free copy of this hardcover book today.

Now, we know such a complete financial disaster is unlikely to happen in the US. But it still makes sense to prepare.

You likely pay for fire insurance. Because even though your house is unlikely to burn down… the small risk of the financial devastation it would cause you is unacceptable.

A financial crisis can cause far worse financial ruin than a house fire.

And fire insurance costs hundreds or thousands of dollars per year. We will send you a free copy of this book.

We’ve done all the legwork for you. We went to foreign countries to open bank accounts. We talked to the best lawyers. We even found the one country that has never, EVER had a bank failure… and where it’s easy for an American to open an account.

The best thing about Going Global 2015 is it includes steps you can take, right now, to protect yourself, your wealth, and your family.

Most people have a huge misunderstanding about this topic. They think you have to be rich to use these strategies.

But Going Global 2015 will show you that’s not true at all. Almost anyone can tuck a few thousand dollars away in a safe foreign bank account… just in case the US banking system blows up again and the government can’t save it this time.

That’s what’s in it for you. You might be wondering… what’s in it for us? Why give away a book that we put so much work into for free?

Well, quite simply, we believe that by trying what is essentially a free sample of some of our best and most valuable work, you might want to do business again with us in the future.

There is literally no reason not to claim your free copy of Going Global 2015. We’ll mail the 233-page hardcover book to your front door. All we ask is that you pay $4.95 to cover the shipping and handling.

• Speaking of crises, Shell is preparing for a “prolonged downturn” in oil prices…

Royal Dutch Shell (RDS-A) needs to save billions of dollars to survive what it calls “challenging times for the industry.”

Shell is the largest publicly traded oil company in the world that is not owned by the Chinese government. This year, the company plans to lay off 6,500 workers. It will also cut investments by $7 billion.

Shell’s CEO said these cuts are necessary because “today’s oil price downturn could last for several years.”

This is a significant shift in Shell’s outlook. In April, Shell forecasted that the oil price would bounce back up to $90 by 2018. A barrel of crude currently costs $48, down from $116 last June.

The crash in oil prices has slammed Shell’s stock. Its most widely traded shares, called “B shares,” are down 16% this year.

• Shell is just one of many big oil companies making huge spending cuts…

This week, Chevron (CVX) said it will eliminate 1,500 jobs. Chevron is the second-largest US oil company.

ConocoPhillips (COP), America’s fifth-largest oil company, has already cut 1,000 jobs. It laid off 5% of its workforce because it expects “lower, more volatile prices.” Conoco’s CFO says the company plans to make more job cuts.

Oil services companies like drillers are feeling the pain, too, according to Bloomberg:

Job cuts at exploration and production companies have accounted for roughly 10 percent of the more than 150,000 layoffs globally throughout the industry, according [to] Graves [& Co.]. That compares with more than 100,000 eliminated from service providers and drilling contractors.

Bloomberg also says that oil companies are cancelling projects:

In addition to reducing their workforces, oil companies are “winding back” investments, consultant Wood Mackenzie Ltd. said this week, estimating they have canceled or delayed $200 billion of projects since mid-2014.

…and more job cuts could be on the way:

Industrywide cuts announced so far may not be enough. Even after saving billions of dollars in the first half, BP [British Petroleum] continues to spend more on capital investments and dividends than it generates from operations and asset sales. Chevron and Total also posted negative cash flow in recent quarters. Shell, while generating enough cash to cover investments and dividends, has a thin cushion

Big oil companies are trying to cut expenses so they don’t have to cut dividend payments to shareholders. Dividend cuts typically scare shareholders and cause them to sell.

That’s the last thing these big oil companies can afford right now. BP’s stock is down 23% over the past 12 months. Chevron and Shell have fallen 27% and 32%, respectively. Conoco’s share price has slid 36%.

Chart of the Day

Today’s chart compares announced job cuts in the US energy sector with the price of crude oil. US energy companies have already announced more job cuts in 2015 than they did during the past three years combined.